The harsh metallic clanging of droids marching was something we heard normally: we were clones, after all. Bred and trained to fight these mechanical foes. But what we never expected was to be thrown into a situation that was deeper than any of us thought it could be. I have lived a satisfactory life, and, although it was not long, I have come to grips with it. Let me start this account with my name: I am CT-2508, or "Fuze", as I was called by my brethren in the days or the Galactic Republic. I'm now a simple worker for a factory, nearing my days of retirement. Let me start by saying something: I am not proud of what happened, none of us were. But as I sit awake at night, every night, I'm unable to stop thinking about this one goddamn event. My girlfriend (I know, an old clone having a girlfriend, but she accepted me and loved me), and I do not want this to continue to haunt me as it has my entire life, leering at me from the shadows and laughing at my suffering, if it scares the shit out of me, I do not want to see what it will do to my child that's coming in about 5 months. I'm now 50 years old (benefiting off being cloned near the end of the war, in the last couple months) but those few months of my life were hell on the galaxy. Let me start my recollection now.
I was a young, starry eyed clone trooper, serving with the 212th attack battalion in Ghost Company. It was the last few months of our fight, and we were deployed to squash a rebellion on Crusader Prime, a small farming planet in the middle of nowhere. It should have been no big deal, it should've been a breeze. Goddamn, it should have! When we landed, we encountered no resistance what so ever. "Fan out! And secure the perimeter" the captain shouted as he stepped out of his gunship, and we all obediently did as he said, crouching into firing positions as she watched the tree line that led to a large forest. As we unloaded our stuff, I could swear I saw movement in the tree line, and so I called it in "You see that? Movement in the trees!" I called to those next to me. They also scanned the tree line, not seeing what I saw. "I got nothing!" One of the innumerable clones shouted as we stared into the seeming abyss that was the forest edge. I shrugged "must be jumpy" I said, as we were called back to formation.